Have you got a Hardware Problem on Your Xbox 360?
Has the Xbox 360 Impeded You playing Your Top games because of the 3 red light Ring of Death?
3 times in 2 years the Xbox 360 has given me the 3 flashing red light wink of doom. Once was a little over 2 months after the Console was purchased.
Which was ok because the game store just gave me a straight off replacement because it was still under warranty.
However, out of warranty its a right headache.
You can pay over $110 to Microsoft for a repair and you will have to wait 2-3 weeks for your console to come back.
Worse still is that I have heard a few reports that when the Xbox 360 consoles came back from Microsoft, the notorious 3 red lights of doom came back shortly afterwards.
So how does this Annoying Ring of Death Happen?
The core cause of the console’s Hardware failure lies in the Heat sink design, Primarily in the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The GPU Heat sink is underneath the DVD drive of the console, and because of this the heat sink is too small for the heat output of the GPU core. Its only 10mm (3/8) High. On the other hand, the CPU is about 50mm (2) High and is liquid cooled.
In the Xbox 360 Elite, Microsoft altered the design of the cooling system so that the Liquid cooling Extend’s beyond the CPU to the GPU. This makes the console dissipate the Heat better and therefore does not overheat to the same extent.
So the bottom line is that constant exposure to high temperatures cause the motherboard to warp slightly which causes cracking of some of the solder joints on the board. That then triggers Hardware failure and the 3 red lights show up on your Xbox 360.
I searched far and wide for a ‘free’ solution (towel trick) but ended up creating irreparable damage to my 360 and I had to live with a permanent 3 red lights, or as i like to call it, the Devil’s Halo!
I was looking for Valuable information.
But if you want that, there has to be a Value on it. (i.e. you gotta pay for it), but if it saves your beloved Xbox, its going to save you a lot of money. The guides available were countless, I didn’t think there would be so many. Having the fix done to your console takes Half an hour - say some guides. And some say two hours. Some guides out there are summarized garbage with steps missing. But I wanted a guide that had the simplest explanation and no technical jargon. (and if there is any, its explained to you).
When I got to do the fix for the first time, it took about two hours. And thats with a degree in electronics! So is a half an hour fix feasible for someone thats not technically minded? So I created a page that gives a proper honest opinion on what guide to use. Narrowed down to a choice of Three.